diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/ConfigEditor.tsx b/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/ConfigEditor.tsx
index 36fb8d59bdd..deb596c20e5 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/ConfigEditor.tsx
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/ConfigEditor.tsx
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import { TraceToLogsSettings } from 'app/core/components/TraceToLogsSettings';
 import React from 'react';
 import { ServiceMapSettings } from './ServiceMapSettings';
 import { config } from '@grafana/runtime';
+import { SearchSettings } from './SearchSettings';
 
 export type Props = DataSourcePluginOptionsEditorProps;
 
@@ -21,7 +22,14 @@ export const ConfigEditor: React.FC<Props> = ({ options, onOptionsChange }) => {
         <TraceToLogsSettings options={options} onOptionsChange={onOptionsChange} />
       </div>
       {config.featureToggles.tempoServiceGraph && (
-        <ServiceMapSettings options={options} onOptionsChange={onOptionsChange} />
+        <div className="gf-form-group">
+          <ServiceMapSettings options={options} onOptionsChange={onOptionsChange} />
+        </div>
+      )}
+      {config.featureToggles.tempoSearch && (
+        <div className="gf-form-group">
+          <SearchSettings options={options} onOptionsChange={onOptionsChange} />
+        </div>
       )}
     </>
   );
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/NativeSearch.tsx b/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/NativeSearch.tsx
index b7396b9c913..663ccd284ad 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/NativeSearch.tsx
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/NativeSearch.tsx
@@ -9,15 +9,20 @@ import {
   TypeaheadInput,
   TypeaheadOutput,
   Select,
+  Alert,
+  useStyles2,
 } from '@grafana/ui';
 import { tokenizer } from './syntax';
 import Prism from 'prismjs';
 import { Node } from 'slate';
 import { css } from '@emotion/css';
-import { SelectableValue } from '@grafana/data';
+import { GrafanaTheme2, SelectableValue } from '@grafana/data';
 import TempoLanguageProvider from './language_provider';
 import { TempoDatasource, TempoQuery } from './datasource';
 import { debounce } from 'lodash';
+import { dispatch } from 'app/store/store';
+import { notifyApp } from 'app/core/actions';
+import { createErrorNotification } from 'app/core/copy/appNotification';
 
 interface Props {
   datasource: TempoDatasource;
@@ -40,19 +45,17 @@ const plugins = [
 Prism.languages[PRISM_LANGUAGE] = tokenizer;
 
 const NativeSearch = ({ datasource, query, onChange, onBlur, onRunQuery }: Props) => {
+  const styles = useStyles2(getStyles);
   const languageProvider = useMemo(() => new TempoLanguageProvider(datasource), [datasource]);
   const [hasSyntaxLoaded, setHasSyntaxLoaded] = useState(false);
   const [autocomplete, setAutocomplete] = useState<{
     serviceNameOptions: Array<SelectableValue<string>>;
-    selectedServiceName: SelectableValue<string> | undefined;
     spanNameOptions: Array<SelectableValue<string>>;
-    selectedSpanName: SelectableValue<string> | undefined;
   }>({
     serviceNameOptions: [],
-    selectedServiceName: undefined,
     spanNameOptions: [],
-    selectedSpanName: undefined,
   });
+  const [error, setError] = useState(null);
 
   const fetchServiceNameOptions = useMemo(
     () =>
@@ -82,10 +85,20 @@ const NativeSearch = ({ datasource, query, onChange, onBlur, onRunQuery }: Props
 
   useEffect(() => {
     const fetchAutocomplete = async () => {
-      await languageProvider.start();
-      await fetchServiceNameOptions();
-      await fetchSpanNameOptions();
-      setHasSyntaxLoaded(true);
+      try {
+        await languageProvider.start();
+        const serviceNameOptions = await languageProvider.getOptions('service.name');
+        const spanNameOptions = await languageProvider.getOptions('name');
+        setHasSyntaxLoaded(true);
+        setAutocomplete({ serviceNameOptions, spanNameOptions });
+      } catch (error) {
+        // Display message if Tempo is connected but search 404's
+        if (error?.status === 404) {
+          setError(error);
+        } else {
+          dispatch(notifyApp(createErrorNotification('Error', error)));
+        }
+      }
     };
     fetchAutocomplete();
   }, [languageProvider, fetchServiceNameOptions, fetchSpanNameOptions]);
@@ -109,111 +122,129 @@ const NativeSearch = ({ datasource, query, onChange, onBlur, onRunQuery }: Props
   };
 
   return (
-    <div className={css({ maxWidth: '500px' })}>
-      <InlineFieldRow>
-        <InlineField label="Service Name" labelWidth={14} grow>
-          <Select
-            menuShouldPortal
-            options={autocomplete.serviceNameOptions}
-            value={query.serviceName || ''}
-            onChange={(v) => {
-              onChange({
-                ...query,
-                serviceName: v?.value || undefined,
-              });
-            }}
-            placeholder="Select a service"
-            onOpenMenu={fetchServiceNameOptions}
-            isClearable
-          />
-        </InlineField>
-      </InlineFieldRow>
-      <InlineFieldRow>
-        <InlineField label="Span Name" labelWidth={14} grow>
-          <Select
-            menuShouldPortal
-            options={autocomplete.spanNameOptions}
-            value={query.spanName || ''}
-            onChange={(v) => {
-              onChange({
-                ...query,
-                spanName: v?.value || undefined,
-              });
-            }}
-            placeholder="Select a span"
-            onOpenMenu={fetchSpanNameOptions}
-            isClearable
-          />
-        </InlineField>
-      </InlineFieldRow>
-      <InlineFieldRow>
-        <InlineField label="Tags" labelWidth={14} grow tooltip="Values should be in the logfmt format.">
-          <QueryField
-            additionalPlugins={plugins}
-            query={query.search}
-            onTypeahead={onTypeahead}
-            onBlur={onBlur}
-            onChange={(value) => {
-              onChange({
-                ...query,
-                search: value,
-              });
-            }}
-            placeholder="http.status_code=200 error=true"
-            cleanText={cleanText}
-            onRunQuery={onRunQuery}
-            syntaxLoaded={hasSyntaxLoaded}
-            portalOrigin="tempo"
-          />
-        </InlineField>
-      </InlineFieldRow>
-      <InlineFieldRow>
-        <InlineField label="Min Duration" labelWidth={14} grow>
-          <Input
-            value={query.minDuration || ''}
-            placeholder={durationPlaceholder}
-            onChange={(v) =>
-              onChange({
-                ...query,
-                minDuration: v.currentTarget.value,
-              })
-            }
-            onKeyDown={onKeyDown}
-          />
-        </InlineField>
-      </InlineFieldRow>
-      <InlineFieldRow>
-        <InlineField label="Max Duration" labelWidth={14} grow>
-          <Input
-            value={query.maxDuration || ''}
-            placeholder={durationPlaceholder}
-            onChange={(v) =>
-              onChange({
-                ...query,
-                maxDuration: v.currentTarget.value,
-              })
-            }
-            onKeyDown={onKeyDown}
-          />
-        </InlineField>
-      </InlineFieldRow>
-      <InlineFieldRow>
-        <InlineField label="Limit" labelWidth={14} grow tooltip="Maximum numbers of returned results">
-          <Input
-            value={query.limit || ''}
-            type="number"
-            onChange={(v) =>
-              onChange({
-                ...query,
-                limit: v.currentTarget.value ? parseInt(v.currentTarget.value, 10) : undefined,
-              })
-            }
-            onKeyDown={onKeyDown}
-          />
-        </InlineField>
-      </InlineFieldRow>
-    </div>
+    <>
+      <div className={styles.container}>
+        <InlineFieldRow>
+          <InlineField label="Service Name" labelWidth={14} grow>
+            <Select
+              menuShouldPortal
+              options={autocomplete.serviceNameOptions}
+              value={query.serviceName || ''}
+              onChange={(v) => {
+                onChange({
+                  ...query,
+                  serviceName: v?.value || undefined,
+                });
+              }}
+              placeholder="Select a service"
+              onOpenMenu={fetchServiceNameOptions}
+              isClearable
+            />
+          </InlineField>
+        </InlineFieldRow>
+        <InlineFieldRow>
+          <InlineField label="Span Name" labelWidth={14} grow>
+            <Select
+              menuShouldPortal
+              options={autocomplete.spanNameOptions}
+              value={query.spanName || ''}
+              onChange={(v) => {
+                onChange({
+                  ...query,
+                  spanName: v?.value || undefined,
+                });
+              }}
+              placeholder="Select a span"
+              onOpenMenu={fetchSpanNameOptions}
+              isClearable
+            />
+          </InlineField>
+        </InlineFieldRow>
+        <InlineFieldRow>
+          <InlineField label="Tags" labelWidth={14} grow tooltip="Values should be in the logfmt format.">
+            <QueryField
+              additionalPlugins={plugins}
+              query={query.search}
+              onTypeahead={onTypeahead}
+              onBlur={onBlur}
+              onChange={(value) => {
+                onChange({
+                  ...query,
+                  search: value,
+                });
+              }}
+              placeholder="http.status_code=200 error=true"
+              cleanText={cleanText}
+              onRunQuery={onRunQuery}
+              syntaxLoaded={hasSyntaxLoaded}
+              portalOrigin="tempo"
+            />
+          </InlineField>
+        </InlineFieldRow>
+        <InlineFieldRow>
+          <InlineField label="Min Duration" labelWidth={14} grow>
+            <Input
+              value={query.minDuration || ''}
+              placeholder={durationPlaceholder}
+              onChange={(v) =>
+                onChange({
+                  ...query,
+                  minDuration: v.currentTarget.value,
+                })
+              }
+              onKeyDown={onKeyDown}
+            />
+          </InlineField>
+        </InlineFieldRow>
+        <InlineFieldRow>
+          <InlineField label="Max Duration" labelWidth={14} grow>
+            <Input
+              value={query.maxDuration || ''}
+              placeholder={durationPlaceholder}
+              onChange={(v) =>
+                onChange({
+                  ...query,
+                  maxDuration: v.currentTarget.value,
+                })
+              }
+              onKeyDown={onKeyDown}
+            />
+          </InlineField>
+        </InlineFieldRow>
+        <InlineFieldRow>
+          <InlineField label="Limit" labelWidth={14} grow tooltip="Maximum numbers of returned results">
+            <Input
+              value={query.limit || ''}
+              type="number"
+              onChange={(v) =>
+                onChange({
+                  ...query,
+                  limit: v.currentTarget.value ? parseInt(v.currentTarget.value, 10) : undefined,
+                })
+              }
+              onKeyDown={onKeyDown}
+            />
+          </InlineField>
+        </InlineFieldRow>
+      </div>
+      {error ? (
+        <Alert title="Unable to connect to Tempo search" severity="info" className={styles.alert}>
+          Please ensure that Tempo is configured with search enabled. If you would like to hide this tab, you can
+          configure it in the <a href={`/datasources/${datasource.uid}`}>datasource settings</a>.
+        </Alert>
+      ) : null}
+    </>
   );
 };
 
 export default NativeSearch;
+
+const getStyles = (theme: GrafanaTheme2) => ({
+  container: css`
+    max-width: 500px;
+  `,
+  alert: css`
+    max-width: 75ch;
+    margin-top: ${theme.spacing(2)};
+  `,
+});
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/QueryField.tsx b/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/QueryField.tsx
index aa7dfa3d132..29ab4cf2a28 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/QueryField.tsx
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/QueryField.tsx
@@ -99,8 +99,8 @@ class TempoQueryFieldComponent extends React.PureComponent<Props, State> {
       queryTypeOptions.push({ value: 'serviceMap', label: 'Service Map' });
     }
 
-    if (config.featureToggles.tempoSearch) {
-      queryTypeOptions.unshift({ value: 'nativeSearch', label: 'Search' });
+    if (config.featureToggles.tempoSearch && !datasource?.search?.hide) {
+      queryTypeOptions.unshift({ value: 'nativeSearch', label: 'Search - Beta' });
     }
 
     if (logsDatasourceUid) {
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/SearchSettings.tsx b/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/SearchSettings.tsx
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6ea9e3df021
--- /dev/null
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/SearchSettings.tsx
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+import { css } from '@emotion/css';
+import { DataSourcePluginOptionsEditorProps, GrafanaTheme, updateDatasourcePluginJsonDataOption } from '@grafana/data';
+import { InlineField, InlineFieldRow, InlineSwitch, useStyles } from '@grafana/ui';
+import React from 'react';
+import { TempoJsonData } from './datasource';
+
+interface Props extends DataSourcePluginOptionsEditorProps<TempoJsonData> {}
+
+export function SearchSettings({ options, onOptionsChange }: Props) {
+  const styles = useStyles(getStyles);
+
+  return (
+    <div className={styles.container}>
+      <h3 className="page-heading">Search</h3>
+      <InlineFieldRow className={styles.row}>
+        <InlineField tooltip="Removes the Search tab from the Tempo query editor." label="Hide search" labelWidth={26}>
+          <InlineSwitch
+            value={options.jsonData.search?.hide}
+            onChange={(event: React.SyntheticEvent<HTMLInputElement>) =>
+              updateDatasourcePluginJsonDataOption({ onOptionsChange, options }, 'search', {
+                ...options.jsonData.search,
+                hide: event.currentTarget.checked,
+              })
+            }
+          />
+        </InlineField>
+      </InlineFieldRow>
+    </div>
+  );
+}
+
+const getStyles = (theme: GrafanaTheme) => ({
+  container: css`
+    label: container;
+    width: 100%;
+  `,
+  row: css`
+    label: row;
+    align-items: baseline;
+  `,
+});
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/datasource.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/datasource.ts
index 67341f709e0..486bb7e8b2b 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/datasource.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/datasource.ts
@@ -35,6 +35,9 @@ export interface TempoJsonData extends DataSourceJsonData {
   serviceMap?: {
     datasourceUid?: string;
   };
+  search?: {
+    hide?: boolean;
+  };
 }
 
 export type TempoQuery = {
@@ -55,12 +58,16 @@ export class TempoDatasource extends DataSourceWithBackend<TempoQuery, TempoJson
   serviceMap?: {
     datasourceUid?: string;
   };
+  search?: {
+    hide?: boolean;
+  };
   uploadedJson?: string | ArrayBuffer | null = null;
 
   constructor(private instanceSettings: DataSourceInstanceSettings<TempoJsonData>) {
     super(instanceSettings);
     this.tracesToLogs = instanceSettings.jsonData.tracesToLogs;
     this.serviceMap = instanceSettings.jsonData.serviceMap;
+    this.search = instanceSettings.jsonData.search;
   }
 
   query(options: DataQueryRequest<TempoQuery>): Observable<DataQueryResponse> {
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/language_provider.ts b/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/language_provider.ts
index 8e02843af69..556c51e9114 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/language_provider.ts
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/tempo/language_provider.ts
@@ -13,15 +13,9 @@ export default class TempoLanguageProvider extends LanguageProvider {
     Object.assign(this, initialValues);
   }
 
-  request = async (url: string, defaultValue: any, params = {}) => {
-    try {
-      const res = await this.datasource.metadataRequest(url, params);
-      return res?.data;
-    } catch (error) {
-      console.error(error);
-    }
-
-    return defaultValue;
+  request = async (url: string, params = {}) => {
+    const res = await this.datasource.metadataRequest(url, params);
+    return res?.data;
   };
 
   start = async () => {
@@ -30,12 +24,8 @@ export default class TempoLanguageProvider extends LanguageProvider {
   };
 
   async fetchTags() {
-    try {
-      const response = await this.request('/api/search/tags', []);
-      this.tags = response.tagNames;
-    } catch (error) {
-      console.error(error);
-    }
+    const response = await this.request('/api/search/tags', []);
+    this.tags = response.tagNames;
   }
 
   provideCompletionItems = async (
@@ -88,7 +78,7 @@ export default class TempoLanguageProvider extends LanguageProvider {
   }
 
   async getOptions(tag: string): Promise<Array<SelectableValue<string>>> {
-    const response = await this.request(`/api/search/tag/${tag}/values`, []);
+    const response = await this.request(`/api/search/tag/${tag}/values`);
     let options: Array<SelectableValue<string>> = [];
 
     if (response && response.tagValues) {